Last night (CET/GMT) the long awaited dress rehearsal for the North American tourleg took place in Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

The most important info first: there were no setlist changes from the European set. The rehearsal was mainly done in order to test the yet unused indoor stage.

The beginning of the show (Behind The Lines/Duke’s End, Turn It On Again, No Son Of Mine, Land Of Confusion) was broadcasted on the official website via live-stream. A positive remark: it seems that almost every fan lurking outside the AC Centre was allowed to attend the rehearsals – not only the sweepstakes winners.

Before the show there was a live press conference and Genesis producer Nick Davis interviewed people like Tony Smith, Geoff Callingham and shortly before showtime the full band. According to Phil there are still 2 songs (which he didn’t name but it’s probably either Jesus He Knows Me, That’s All or In Too Deep) that probably make it into the set at a later stage of the US tour. Tony Smith was asked about the future plans of the band. He said that most likely there won’t be an album in the traditional sense but that he could imagine a single song – probably a longer one – being published through the internet. In the past the band hat always stated that they „fear“ the commitments that come along with the promotion of a full new album. Tony Smith’s statement regarding a continuation of the tour or a Lamb tour was „never say never“. He admitted that he always has a few plans up his sleeve in case the band decides to tour or whatever at short notice.

The owner of TheMusic.com announced the release of a North American Encore Series (i.e. soundboard recordings from every show).

The rehearsal show and most likely as well the interviews will be available on the official website shortly – probably only for paying members.

Photo by Kathy

Genesis will kick off their first North American Tour in 15 years at the BMO Field in Toronto, Canada, in two days (7th September). But today (5th September), selected people can witness the production rehearsal of the new indoor stage at Toronto’s Air Canada Center.
The official Genesis site, genesis-music.com, offers something special: Genesis LIVE from production rehearsals in Toronto on September 5th! Don’t miss this exclusive preview as the band gears up for their North American tour. The first half of the webcast, beginning at approximately 4:00 pm EDT will feature legendary Genesis producer Nick Davis taking viewers on a backstage tour, chatting with the crew and then sitting down for an interview with Genesis! The second half of the broadcast begins at approximately 5:30 pm EDT, and is for Genesis-Music members only…and will air the first songs from production rehearsals live from Toronto!
Check out the official Genesis site for further information!
Genesis-news.com will keep you up to date with all information about this tour in this blog. If you want to help out by providing stories, setlists and photos, contact us!

Slowly the tension starts to rise again. On Sept. 2nd the band meets again in Toronto after their “summer break”. Until Sept. 5th they will test the indoor stage for the North American tour at the Air Canada Centre. At the moment it’s totally uncertain if there will be set changes at all. We’ll probably know more after the dress rehearsal on Sept. 5th.

The tour then restarts on Sept. 7th at Toronto FC’s recently inaugurated soccer stadium BMO Field. For this show as well as at Montréal’s Olympic Stadium and New York’s Giant Stadium the band will use the stadium stage from the European leg.

For details on the North American tour click here.

One personal remark: of course UK76’s TRAVELS will return. On Sept. 15th I’ll be flying to Boston to see my first North American show (of eight) in Hartford the following day. As usual reports will be available in this blog.

… and according to first reviews those songs were played:

Behind the Lines / Duke’s End / Turn It On Again
No Son Of Mine
Land of Confusion
In The Cage / The Cinema Show / Duke’s Travels / Afterglow
Hold on My Heart
Home by the Sea / Second Home By The Sea
Follow You Follow Me
Firth of Fifth / I Know What I Like
Mama
Ripples
Throwing It All Away
Domino
Drum Duet / Los Endos
Tonight Tonight Tonight / Invisible Touch

I Can’t Dance
Carpet Crawlers

There’s already a 1.5 minutes long video clip of In The Cage available on YouTube: CLICK

According to Nick Davis there will be another rehearsal session tomorrow morning. Then the crew will do the load-out and head for Helsinki. The band will do a final rehearsal there on Sunday before the tour officially kicks off on Monday!

Nick Davis has joined the rehearsals in Brussels, Belgium, on Whitsun Monday. Apart from expressing his enthusiasm for the stage setup he also told users of the official forum that the set list from the Cossonay rehearsals had not changed so far.

Further impressions from the “production rehearsals” (day 9) have been advertised in the multimedia section of the official website for the evening of Wednesday, May 30.

This Friday the next bit of video footage from the production rehearsals in Brussels will be available on genesis-music.com. This one will be from day 7 which means it still won’t contain music but show the further progress of the stage build which should nearly be done then.

On the official Genesis website there’s a new video (4 minutes long) showing some footage from the test build of the stage. Unfortunately it’s only available for members but surely worth watching as it gives a slight idea of what the stage will look like.

According to Nick Davis production rehearsals will start this weekend in Brussels, Belgium.

This was also indirectly confirmed by Daryl Stuermer who stated in a recent radio interview that he’ll be flying to Brussels today (Friday, May 18th).

Nick Davis will join the rehearsals on May 28th. Before that there will also be a lot of testing of screens and light.

Genesis have now finished their rehearsals in Cossonay in Switzerland. A lot of things were rumoured within the past few weeks regarding the setlist and if you don’t want to know anything, do not read any further.

Producer Nick Davis has posted various comments in the official forums with hints what Genesis rehearsed. Also, some bad bootleg recordings made it on YouTube.
Genesis definitely rehearsed The Carpet Crawlers, No Son Of Mine, Mama, In The Cage, Afterglow, Turn It On Again, Invisible Touch, I Can’t Dance, Domino…..().